On the surface, the trade talks between the Dolphins and Jaguars this week came down to rather simple truths: Both teams had players they no longer wanted—Branden Albert in Miami’s case, Julius Thomas for Jacksonville—so the two sides swapped parts.
The agreement reportedly will go off as two separate transactions: Per the Miami Herald’s Armando Salguero, it’ll be Thomas to Miami for a 2017 late-round pick and Albert to the Jaguars for a 2018 late-rounder. There were rumored contract talks surrounding both players, as it pertained to their new homes, which might explain why this didn’t happen in one fell swoop—in other words, the Jaguars may have wanted to move on acquiring Albert regardless of what played out with Thomas.